Docile Bodies, p. 138 (Michel Foucault, 1995)"Thus discipline produces subjected and practised bodies, 'docile' bodies. Discipline increases the forces of the body (in economic terms of utility) and diminishes these same forces (in political terms of obedience). In short, it dissociates power from the body; on the one hand, it turns it into an 'aptitude', a 'capacity', which it seeks to increase; on the other hand, it reverses the course of the energy, the power that might result from it, and turns it into a relation of the strict subjection. If economic exploitation separates the force and the product of labour, let us say that disciplinary coercion establishes in the body the constricting link between an increased aptitude and an increased domination."
Plastic-Teeth Extraction, p. 164 (Brad Weiss, 1996)
"Thus, the power of the subjective authority to which the child submits as object is realized in the constitution of the child's subjectivity. The objective submission of the child implies the potential for subjective action. The coordination of these potentials demonstrates that the child's self/world, subject/object orientation is reflexively constructed, and infused with the relations and meanings of power that produce it."
pac·i·fi·er [pas-uh-fahy-er] –noun
əˌfaɪ| 1. | a person or thing that pacifies. |
| 2. | a rubber or plastic device, often shaped into a nipple, for a baby to suck or bite on. |
Pacifiers, for which the purpose is to comfort an infant, seem to force young children into docility. They soothe children, and are commonly known to keep children from crying. In a way, they increase the economic utility of infants, as they are then forced to watch, listen, and hopefully learn from the world around them. They also increase obedience, as they are persuaded not to cry. Pacifiers do exactly what is implied by their name: they pacify. Similar to what Foucault says in Docile Bodies, pacifiers reverse the course of energy from an outward proclamation of dissatisfaction (crying) to an inward acquisition of observations. More along the lines of Weis' comments, the infant is subjected to whatever surrounds it, dominated by whatever others teach. In other words, the pacifying of the child allows it to be acted upon and taught or forced to listen, which implies an eventual active role, post-discipline. The child will take part in that active role, in part, as a response to what it sees and hears during the time that it is pacified. Thus, "the objective submission of the child implies the potential for subjective action."
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